Bio:

Caspar Whiteside is of mixed heritage, with a grandfather that is native American. His devoutly catholic (and prejudiced) relations disowned his grandmother and all subsequent generations on that branch of the family tree. Although his grandmother and his parents tried desperately to please the rest of the family, acceptance never came.

Part of his parents plan to win back the good graces of the family was to have Caspar become a priest. He was schooled strictly and formally towards this goal. Tragically, before Caspar became of age, his parents were killed in an auto-mobiling accident. Not of legal age and without resources to fend for himself, Caspar moved in with his elderly grandfather.

A clash of cultures ensued. Caspar, faith shaken, was introduced to the spiritual beliefs of his native American grandfather. Finding his grandfather to be a wise and caring man, he could not dismiss the elder’s philosophies out of hand and noticed deep parallels at the core of both ideologies.

At the outset of World War I, Caspar desperately wanted to join the armed forces and serve as a minister in the field of combat. He felt it was his true calling to stand beside his patriotic brethren and help them face hells fury. Sadly, Caspar was deemed not physically fit to serve in combat [Note: exercise induced asthma that sets in after prolonged periods of physical exertion]. Caspar spent many hours practicing with his Lee-Enfield rifle, the same kind his friends were carrying over seas, in anticipation that, if times were dire enough, he would be called upon. While not professionally trained, he became a passing marksman.

As his friends returned, some scarred as much internally as externally, Caspar had his second crisis of faith. He was no longer able to accept a dogmatic view of religion. To fill the void, he started reading all religious texts he could find, even those that spoke of the dark and shadowy places.

To make ends meet, Caspar began teaching courses in religion and philosophy at the college. After much prodding, he wrote a text on the parallels in Native American mythology and the Bible. Though shunned by the “respectable” society, the book became a very popular text among academics and Caspar makes a reasonably good living off of the books sales and occasional speaking engagements both in America and abroad.

It was in the library of the college that, one day, Caspar bumped into Edlin “Ed” Nordass, both of whom were reaching for a particularly rare tome…